Daily Times

The number of infected cases among healthcare professionals, including paramedics and doctors, has been increasing day by day due to the reason that they are not versed in handling pathogenic and infectious microorganisms like SARS-2 whereas the microbiologists, specially virologists, immunologists & molecular biology biotechnologists are the right professionals to deal with such outbreaks who should be added to the already existing pool of doctors and paramedics.

This was claimed by Health experts including Head of Community Medicine Ayub Medical College Professor Dr. Salim Wazir & Assistant Professor Microbiology & Immunology Abbottabad University of Science & Technology (AUST) Dr. Ayub Jadoon chatting with newsmen here on Thursday.

Professor Dr. Salim Wazir, when contacted, told that the whole country has to work together to control this pandemic & on health front we need doctors, nurses, paramedics and all the rest in good spirit and well protected to treat the patients.

The overall responsibility lies with the government & public health experts to fight this multi-dimensional war. “In fact, public health experts have to lead at federal, provincial & hospital levels. Virologists are required to supervise the PCR testing at this moment whereas virologists and immunologists would be required to examine the viruses & develop vaccines for prevention of COVID and antibodies for treatment of COVID disease. At the moment there is an urgent need to employ molecular biology biotechnologists in all those places where PCR machines have been installed” he added.

Dr. Ayub Jadoon when contacted told that there has been a cry from all corners about the PPEs for the Doctors and paramedics. In spite of the provision of the PPEs morbidity and mortalities have been increasing on daily basis. He told that infectious and noninfectious microorganisms subjects with specialization in virology, Bacteriology, Mycology, Parasitology, in which every student is supposed to do complete research on the microbial dynamics of the selected pathogenic strains. Many of them work on the mutation in viruses. “During their research they completely restrict themselves in the labs and deal in such viruses and their emerging strains” adding that they are the professional who studies such viruses for more than 8 to 10 years. Dr. Ayub pointed out that during this study they come across every step starting from the sampling I.e. blood, saliva, urine CSF etc, their transportation to the labs and then lab handling up to the level of the results keeping the samples in stores for further study, In Contrast the paramedics and the Doctors usually have a detailed study in the subjects of Anatomy, Physiology, Medicine, and Surgery.

Dr. Ayub Jadoon told that hundreds of microbiologists, Bacteriologists, and immunologists existing in the country and suggested that In every hospital there is a dire need that such professionals should be added to the already existing pool of Doctors and Paramedics in order to avoid the morbidity and mortality. “The professionals can work together in a team in the hospitals and other diagnostic centers to minimize the loss & can very well handle the corona patients in the wards”. Similarly, they can also be useful in the departments where there is a chance of gathering of the people in order to guide the people properly and to behave in a scientific way, he concluded.

Meanwhile a manual PCR machine has been provided by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to Ayub Medical Teaching Institution (AMTI) at Public Health Laboratory for the laboratory tests of COVID-19, whereas the automatic machine has reportedly shifted to Chief Minister’s constituency in Swat.

Highly placed sources in the health department told that PCR machine installed in Ayub Teaching hospital Abbottabad is a manual of nature which technically caused exposure of health staff posted in the laboratory. The much-publicized automatic PCR machine provided by NDMA was shifted to Swat, the home district of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan whereas on severe public criticism, provincial the government managed to provide a manual PCR machine in Abbottabad. Sources further told that automatic PCR can save the health care professionals working in the laboratory contrary to the manual PCR machines where staff on duty were exposed at the stage of extraction manually, wash & mix process manually before reading by PCR. In complete automatic PCR machines all these three stages are done by the machine in the closed chamber.

According to Medical Director Dr Ahsan Aurangezeb, at present, they were not having auto extractor along with a PCR machine, therefore they have been extracting manually. He told that this public health Laboratory has so far conducted 806 tests out of which 66 positive cases have been traced from Hazara division. The report further stated that 700 cases were not detected corona while 35 cases were declared inconclusive.

Head of Pathology Department AMTI Professor Dr Naeema Afzal when contacted also confirming the installation of PCR machine without automatic extraction in ATH & told that they have been following the infection control guidelines of WHO. She told that minimum people have been involved with strictly observing of properly isolation & quarantine protocols. She although has reserved about the area where it has installed, however, she told they have posted temporary faculty & staff managing to best of their ability. She urged the need of molecular biologist in virologist in the PCR laboratory & told that they have not compromised on biosafety.

Earlier AMTI that Director General Health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in its notification issued on 21.4.2020 has authorized Abbottabad public health laboratory based at Ayub teaching hospital to conduct independent testing of patients with cOVID-19 & generate its own lab reports.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister was accompanied by Speaker KP Assembly Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, provincial ministers Akbar Ayub Khan, Qalandar Khan Lodhi, Chief Secretary KPK Kazim Niaz, IGP KP Sanaullah Abbasi, Secretary Health Syed Imtiaz Shah, Commissioner Hazara Zaheer Ul Islam, DIG Hazara Qazi Jamil Ur Rehman, and Commander 19 Div. and Local MNA Ali Khan Jadoon visited Ayub Teaching hospital on 22nd April and inaugurated “state of the art” PCR machine for COVID-19.